1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an expandable reel assembly which can accommodate a family of reel sizes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the electronics industry, and especially respecting electrical connectors, great care is taken to insure careful handling of the fragile components. This care in handling continues into the shipping process where much time, effort and money is invested to ensure that electrical connectors or their components arrive at their destination undamaged.
When electrical terminals are stamped and formed, they are stamped and formed from narrow rolls of strip stock, each terminal remaining on the carrier strip and then rerolled onto a reel for shipping purposes. The reel of terminals could then be shipped on the reel to a customer or to an assembly plant where the terminals would be installed in connector housings.
In either event, there are certain requirements for the design of the reels. First, the reels must be produced without great expense. As the reels are not typically reusable or returned from the customer, the reels must be an inexpensive component of the cost of the connectors. Second, the reels must be modular in nature, as it is not desirable to have a large quantity of reels previously assembled, as the reels become damaged or the flanges warped; furthermore, the storage space required to store the previously assembled reels is large compared to the space required to store the component parts. Third, the components of reels must be interchangeable to offer a family of reel sizes as several reel sizes are required. Fourth, the reels must be durable as most times the reels are shipped by truck and, therefore, subject to constant shock and vibration. Fifth, the reels must be capable of being installed on an automated assembly machine having an arbor with a drive mechanism, as the components shipped on the reels, whether terminals or complete connectors, are typically mass inserted by an assembly machine into the next respective assembly. Sixth, the assembly of the modular components must be done quickly and easily without complicated tools, or without gluing or otherwise handling the components together, as these processes are time consuming for a shipping department to achieve.
There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,095 a reel capable of assembling and disassembling with a wide variation of widths. However, the rotatable locking mechanism shown best in FIG. 2 is a precision fit match between the pair of hub members 24, 16, resulting in a high cost assembly which is not desirable for shipping purposes. The design in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,095 also requires two components for the hub assembly requiring an increased burden for inventory control within a shipping department. It has also been found that the design in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,095 is not feasible for use on an automated assembling machine having an arbor. As the assembly machine drive mechanism requires frequent and sudden torque at its spindle, it was found that the hub assembly would actually unlock causing the rolled components to become dislodged from the reel.
Another type reel is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,841 and includes a hub member 12 having latch members 24 which lock over the flange members 14. A disadvantage to this type design is that the typical vibration involved in shipping causes the flange members to become disassembled from the hub member thereby damaging the components on the reel.
Another reel of the prior art, although not patented, includes two cardboard flanges having a cardboard spacer glued therebetween. The cardboard spacer includes a cardboard tube with corrugated paper wrapped therearound and glued to the spool. The disadvantage to this spool design is a result of the process of its manufacture.
The spacers were manufactured in long rolls then cut to various widths as required for the application. The spacers could not always be cut squarely, nor could the spacers be centered with the center of the flange causing unusuable reels. Furthermore, the reels must be purchased in an assembled fashion requiring an unnecessary amount of storage space within a shipping department.